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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/29905218">starry eyes sparking up my darkest night</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/laadynaty/pseuds/laadynaty'>laadynaty</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>The Daevabad Trilogy - S. A. Chakraborty</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Bathtubs, Domestic Fluff, F/M, Married Life, No Plot, Post Book 3: The Empire of Gold, and Ali taking care of his wife because she’s tired, and lots of feelings because that’s all i’m capable of, completely self-indulgent, just fluff, they are everything to me</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-03-09</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-03-09</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-15 19:07:56</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>4,741</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/29905218</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/laadynaty/pseuds/laadynaty</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Nahri gets a well-deserved night of sleep.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Nahri e-Nahid &amp; Alizayd al Qahtani, Nahri e-Nahid/Alizayd al Qahtani</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>11</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>32</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>starry eyes sparking up my darkest night</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Para Gih, Luisa e Maria, por me apoiarem sempre, em tudo.</p><p>To Munazza and my Potato Heads friends: thank you so much for your friendship. I am so grateful I met y’all. </p><p>Standard warning: English is not my native language, so please ignore any mistakes.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p> </p><p><em>Finally home</em>. Nahri sighed as she closed the door of her house and faced the stairs that greeted her on the other side. Exhausted as she was, the staircase seemed endless, the distance between Nahri and her bed insurmountable.</p><p>Her day at the hospital was tough, patients coming in and out without breaks. Subha tried to make her rest and eat properly, but Nahri was so on edge that day that her resting pauses were short and scarce. When there were only ten minutes left until her shift was over, a new patient arrived, bent in agony. Some kind of new curse, hexed to cause a magical snake to curl inside someone. It should have been a simple procedure, but the snake was intertwined so tightly around his organs that she and Subha had to basically cut him open and fight against the thing. Nahri had to swallow the lump in her throat when more than once her mind took her back to her very first patient, a lady suffering of similar curse – back then, she had Nisreen to back her up. Although years have passed, and Nahri was a proud and experienced healer, the memory still hit her when she looked up and didn’t find the reassuring eyes of her first mentor there to ease her nervousness.</p><p>Everything worked out at the end. After one long hour of analyzing and also documenting the patient’s condition – a suggestion of a certain someone who <em>loved</em> to carry scrolls everywhere – Nahri was finally free to go. Her work clothes were all bloodied, so she changed and tried to wash herself with a piece of cloth as much as she could, in a matter of not scaring her husband to death when she arrived home, but Nahri could still feel a layer of sweat and grease covering her body.</p><p>Peeking at the length of her staircase again, she imagined herself jumping inside her bathtub, as if the thought itself could whisk her there in the blink of an eye. <em>Why did I buy a house with a second floor?</em> Nahri couldn’t help but complain. She laid back against the door, and the contact of her head on the wood made a loud thump.</p><p>“Nahri?” She heard the voice coming from the small office squeezed between the kitchen and the garden.</p><p>“I’m hoooome,” Nahri sang, her voice breaking. She pushed herself from the wall, only to slump against the railing. Creator, she couldn’t even summon the courage to raise her leg. Maybe Subha was right – not that she would ever admit it aloud –, maybe she needed more breaks during her working shift. Her Nahid abilities could keep her productive for <em>hours</em>, but even her magic had limits. And when the rush of her job dissipated, she was always left worn out.  </p><p>Nahri heard a shuffle of movement coming from the office, and looked up in time to see her husband crossing the threshold. Ali was already dressed in his bed clothes, and his favored turban was nowhere to be seen, his dark and short curls on sight. He smiled at her, brightly, and she felt her face stretching in a smirk in response. Nahri rested her chin on the railing, staring at his lithe form as he approached. </p><p>Ali’s hand covered hers as he leaned against the railing and kissed her forehead. “I’ve missed you,” he whispered, lips trailing her cheek. “Did something happen? You arrived later than usual.”</p><p>“I’ve missed you too,” Nahri mumbled, and her eyes fluttered with his touch. “Busy day at the hospital. Many patients.” When Ali retreated and inspected her face with concern, she sighed. “I’m just tired. And desperately in need of a bath,” Nahri finished, glancing at the top of the stairs, where she wanted <em>so bad</em> to be.</p><p>“Mmm.” His mouth quirked up in a half-smile. “And will you stay hunched there, or will you go up?”</p><p>“Up,” Nahri answered cheerfully, but didn’t move one inch. She’d move… eventually. In a bit.</p><p>“Do you need help?” Ali leaned his head against the railing, mirroring her position.</p><p>Nahri blinked. Even her brain wasn’t quite processing his words fast enough. The answer took longer than it should to come out of her lips. “Yes.”</p><p>“Do you <em>want </em>help?” he continued, one eyebrow raised.</p><p><em>He knows me too well</em>. What she wanted was to magically appear at the top of the staircase without <em>any</em> help, but she wasn’t sure if djinn could actually perform such trick and even if they could, her magic <em>certainly </em>would fail her this time. She could almost feel it, amplified by the seal merged in her heart, telling her to stop for today. Well, one little help would not hurt her pride… <em>that </em>much.</p><p>“<em>Yes</em>,” Nahri grunted, vexed.</p><p>Ali did not waste time. In a heartbeat, he had already snaked behind her and scooped her up in his arms. Since she had already conceded, Nahri thought it would be fine to enjoy the treat. She rested her head on his shoulder, eyes closed, glad for the steady sway his body made while climbing the stairs.</p><p>Too soon they arrived at the top. Too soon Ali put her down, leaned against the threshold of their small adjacent bathroom.</p><p>“Stay here,” Ali said, and rushed inside to prepare the bath. “Please don’t fall asleep while standing there,” he completed, a barely concealed laugh in his voice. Nahri huffed, but kept her eyes open, staring at their bedroom.</p><p>Their big bed was tidy, with clean sheets (because Ali never left their bed rumpled or messy), their books were piled in both sides of the bed (books about Economy by the left side, books about herbs and Medicine by the right side), and his colorful praying mat stretched out right beside her tiny fire altar. Her heart skipped a beat at the sight of their cozy home. Five years back, after a conversation with her now mother-in-law, Nahri had imagined how their lives could be, married and living together in a book-stuffed bedroom over a tea scented apothecary. Back then, this thought had felt so distant from the reality she needed to face, too out of her grasp; and yet here they were, married, with their own home that smelled like old books and tea and irises – the same flowers that Ali had promised her to plant everywhere, were now planted on their garden. <em>It’s enough</em>, she had told him when he first laid the seeds in their backyard. <em>I want them to be just ours. </em>His answering smile had been deliciously bright.</p><p>Her warm thoughts were interrupted by Ali’s voice inside the bathroom. “Nahri?”</p><p>“Yes?” Nahri turned her head to see Ali emerging from the adjacent room.</p><p>“Come here.” Ali pulled her inside, and Nahri had to command her legs to actually <em>move</em>, otherwise she would fall flat on his chest. <em>Not a bad idea, in fact</em>. But, no – there was nothing romantic about leaving her husband to drag her unmoving body from the floor. She still had <em>some</em> willpower left of her own.</p><p>When they entered the bathroom, Nahri saw the marble tub filled with water and petals, small scented candles forming a circle around it, although they weren’t yet lit. She exhaled loudly, thrilled at the effort Ali had put to make a little cocoon of warmth for her. When she turned to him, a huge smile on her face, Ali was watching her, red with embarrassment. He dropped his gaze.</p><p>“What is it?” Nahri squeezed his hand, coaxing him to meet her eyes.</p><p>“I… need your help for this part,” Ali said, a shy grin in his expression. “Can you warm up the water?” Nahri lifted his hand to her lips to kiss it.</p><p>“Of course.” Having a marid husband meant easy access to clean water, but sometimes she forgot that he didn’t have djinn powers anymore. Well, she <em>had</em> taught him how to lit a fire without magic, back at the Nile’s shore, years ago, but using a small amount of the easiest type of magic for her would be much quicker and, truth be told, wouldn’t drain much more of her energy.</p><p>Nahri clasped her hands around the tub’s edges, mumbled the words under her breath and waited for her magic to answer. The water warmed quickly, as if sensing the magic’s bearer would not stand on her own for much longer. With a snap of her fingers as she straightened, the candles sparkled bright. They smelled like hibiscus – her favorite. Nahri turned to smile at her husband, who was waiting behind her. On second thought, she spun around again and focused on the candles. If her husband did all that in a spam of five minutes, she could surely enhance it a bit more. With another snap of her fingers, the candles lifted from the ground to float in the air, and the water reflexed their light, creating a shining red atmosphere around the tub, while shadows engulfed the edges of the room. She turned around one more time, lifting both of her eyebrows as if teasing him to congratulate her.</p><p>“Show-off,” Ali scoffed. His arms circled her waist and pulled her close. “Thank you.”</p><p>“No need for that.” Nahri stood on her tiptoes to reach his mouth. Before he could deepen the kiss – <em>which he certainly wanted to do</em>, she noticed –, Nahri moved back, searching for his yellow eyes. “I’m the one who should be thanking.”</p><p>“No need for that,” Ali echoed her words with a smile. He started to pull up her dress, motioning for Nahri to raise her arms.</p><p>She felt a protest rising in her chest, a seed of her past self who refused to show weakness. She wasn’t useless yet – the magic she had just done was proof enough. “I can do this alon–”</p><p>“Nahri.” Ali cupped her face and kissed her lips again. When he pulled back, his yellow eyes, soft with affection, bore into hers, and she felt like melting. “Let me take care of you tonight.”</p><p>Well. When he asked it like <em>that</em>…</p><p>And this was Ali, after all. He always threw himself wholeheartedly in every task he took into his hands, whether it’s about saving a whole city, creating a new type of government or helping his wife to get inside the bathtub because her legs are giving out. Sometimes she wondered what she had done to deserve such a loving and caring husband. <em>It’s not about deserving</em>, she scolded herself. <em>It’s about giving whatever you can and hoping it’s enough.</em> This was something she was still learning. And she knew he was giving everything he could, even now, with something as trivial as pulling her clothes off. So Nahri was happy to let him take the reins tonight.</p><p>She smiled and lifted her arms as high as she could, giggling when his hands brushed that spot in her belly that was ticklish. Her scarf fell on the floor, the rest of her clothes followed right after it. To her amusement, Ali picked her up in his arms again, this time to lower her gently inside the bathtub. With another peck on her lips, Ali moved back while she slid neck-deep into the water with a sigh.</p><p>Nahri relaxed in the warm water, murky after the scented lotions Ali had dropped inside. With her eyes closed, she heard Ali shuffling behind her and knew he would dutifully start their bathing routine – one of her favorite parts of the night, coming right after <em>that</em> other thing they usually did before sleeping, and sometimes on mornings, or during her free hours on work… –, but then Ali’s hands were pulling her hair back and she quickly turned around to see that he was perched beside the tub.</p><p>“Aren’t you coming in?” Nahri asked, confused.</p><p>“I bathed earlier today. Had an incident with some old books...” Ali trailed off after he saw her exasperated expression. “Everything was fine!” he quickly added. “No concussion this time, so that’s a win... right?” He smirked. <em>The nerve</em>.</p><p>“<em>Ali</em>,” Nahri said in warning, eyes narrowed at his darting expression. “You need to be careful with those books. If something happens, I’m not here to help.”</p><p>Ali shushed her, grabbing the wooden bucket from a corner. “It was alright. Nothing to worry about.”</p><p><em>Yeah, sure</em>, Nahri thought, pursuing her lips. She could see in his expression that he would continue to dig suspicious books out of their holes for the rest of his life. And she’d continue to worry for the rest of hers. “Your curiosity will be the death of you, and you’ll be the death of <em>me</em>,” she said, a smile forming on her mouth despite herself.</p><p>Ali laughed, and told her to move forward so he could pour water in her head, which she gladly obeyed. After a while, he spoke again.</p><p>“Also, tonight it’s about you, not me.”</p><p>Those words warmed her all over, and she let the book topic drop. “Okay.” Nahri sighed as Ali’s fingers ran through her hair.</p><p>Several minutes later, in which Ali hummed softly while massaging her scalp, Nahri was all clean and feeling like herself again. Ali had settled cross-legged beside her, their fingers intertwined.</p><p>“Are you hungry?” Ali asked from his position at the tub’s edge, chin propped on his other hand. “I could make you something.”</p><p>“Could you?” Nahri opened one eye to peek at him.</p><p>“I could <em>try</em> to make you something.” Ali scratched his head, but she could tell that he was amused. “Admit it, we’re getting better at this. I mean, <em>I</em> am.” Ali looked at her through the corner of his eye, as if expecting a scold. Nahri, however, was too tired to try to argue against facts: out of the two of them, he was definitely the best cook.</p><p>“You really are.” She pulled their hands out of the water to kiss his knuckles. “Thank you, but I already ate at the hospital.” Her eyebrows quirked up as she teased: “You’re still not better than Subha.”</p><p>“Oh, that much I know,” Ali pouted. “Speaking of Subha, tell me more about your day.”</p><p>“Ooof.” Nahri slid down again, almost fully diving into the tub. “Like I said, it was busy. Very busy. When I was almost leaving, this rude man arrived with some new type of curse. Subha and I had to stitch his insides back together after the procedure, and I got all bloody. And now my feet are all sore and hurting from running around.” Nahri huffed, making bubbles pop in the water in front of her mouth. She then realized how bitter she sounded, and quickly tried to explain herself a bit better. “Don’t get me wrong, I <em>love</em> what I do. I just…”</p><p>“Hey, it’s okay.” Ali approached again, his cheek resting in the edge of the tub. “We don’t need to love our work <em>all the time</em>. It’s okay to acknowledge its struggles, and it’s okay to feel overwhelmed by them.”</p><p>“You’re right.” Nahri smiled at his words. After ten years of knowing him, and one year of marriage, she could <em>still </em>be awestruck by moments like this, when Ali knew exactly the right thing to say to ease her mind. <em>Almost </em>every single time. He still had a very bad timing.</p><p>As if on cue, his face lit up suddenly. “Oh, wait!” He dropped her hand. “I forgot the tea!”</p><p>“Tea? What te–” Nahri started, but Ali had already darted out of the room. She heard his footsteps loud in the staircase as he rushed down, probably towards the kitchen to extinguish a potential fire.</p><p>When he returned, looking all apologetic, a cup of tea in his hand, she grunted: “Are you done ruining the mood?”</p><p>“I’m sorry,” he said, although he didn’t look sorry at all. He passed her the cup, and dropped in a crouch by the tub’s feet. “The tea was waiting for your arrival.” Ali winked at her, and Nahri rolled her eyes, amused. “Where were we?”</p><p>“I’m done complaining,” Nahri said, sipping from the cup. Hibiscus tea exploded in her mouth, and she hummed, satisfied. “Now, <em>this</em> is something you do well,” she added. The flavor matched the scent in the room. She looked up again to thank him, only to notice where he was sitting. Nahri grimaced. “Why are you so far away? Come back to me.” She raised her arm, as if to reach him without moving anything else. In truth, this should be a prompt for him to approach, but he didn’t.</p><p>“I can help ease your stress,” Ali said matter-of-factly. He reached inside the water to hold her foot. Nahri stared at him, confused.</p><p>“What are you doing?” Without saying anything, Ali started to massage her foot, rubbing her toes and kneading her heel. “Oh.” Nahri groaned, throwing her head back to rest in the tub’s edge. Her feet truly could use a massage.</p><p>They fell into a comfortable silence, Ali completed focused on her feet and Nahri with her eyes closed, enjoying the attention and taking occasional sips of her tea. She could also sense his magic moving the water around her body, a soft caress meant to ease the tension on her muscles and help her body relax even more.</p><p>After a while, Nahri opened her eyes to study him. His eyebrows were closed together in concentration, his mouth forming a pout. He looked really beautiful, but no surprise there. She discovered in the past few years that there wasn’t a single expression that she didn’t find beautiful in Ali’s face. <em>That’s called ‘being in love’, </em>Subha had told her, when she’d let that comment slip out two or three years back, before they were even engaged. She couldn’t hide the facts; everyone already knew it.</p><p>“Hey, husband,” Nahri called him out, moving up so the water would do a scarce job to cover her from chest down. “How about… you ease my stress in other ways?” she said with a low voice, and took another sip of her tea, very slowly, to hide her grin.</p><p>The corner of his mouth lifted up, but he didn’t look at her. However, she could very clearly see the blush creeping up his neck, and his hands squeezed her feet a bit more tightly. Nahri grinned widely in anticipation. Oh, how she adored his reddened cheeks whenever she said something suggestive. Which was very frequent.</p><p>When Nahri brought the cup back to her lips, Ali cleared his throat. “You’re tired today,” he said cautiously, eyeing her sideways. “Won’t be able to keep up.”</p><p>Nahri choked with her tea.</p><p>“Alizayd al Qahtani,” she exclaimed, after countless coughs, utter shock clear on her face. “Who knew you’d become smug like that.”</p><p>He shrugged, a wide smile stretching on his face. “I would say I have a fair share of experience by now.”</p><p><em>Indeed</em>, she mused, tilting her head as his hands continued to work on her feet. “You are right, though.” Nahri admitted. “I am too tired to keep up. I was just baiting you.” At least for tonight. Tomorrow, on the other hand…  </p><p>As if he could read her mind – by now, she was sure that he could –, Ali said: “Hopefully tomorrow you’ll wake up... rested enough.”</p><p>She raised an eyebrow. “Is that a promise?” At the sight of his pursued lips trying to hold back another smile, Nahri grinned. “I’ll definitely hold you accountable for that.”</p><p>“And I’ll be happy to fulfill it.” This time Ali laughed openly, and leaned in to place a kiss on her leg. “There you go. Did it help?”</p><p>Nahri moved her toes and happily noticed that the swelling reduced. “Oh, I can feel them again.” She sighed, and grabbed Ali’s hands as he stood up and reached out to her. “Thank you, love.”</p><p>Ali smiled tenderly. “Are you ready to get out?” He motioned towards the balcony, where they kept their towels folded neatly.</p><p>“Yes,” she answered him, eager to drop on her bed and stay there until her body started functioning again. “Let’s go to bed.” She lifted her other hand, and Ali quickly helped her stand up. As she stepped out of the bathtub, Ali grabbed a towel and took her nightgown from the hanger on the corner.</p><p>“Hold this,” he said, handing her the gown. Nahri watched as he brought the towel down her back, then up her arms, around her neck.</p><p>“Can’t you use marid magic to dry me out?” Nahri asked, puzzled about why he hadn’t done it already. Most of the times they got out of the bath together, Ali would just flick his hand and beads of water would leave their bodies to gather in the air, only to be dropped back inside the tub. Quick and efficient.</p><p>“Right now I feel like drying you in the old fashioned way.” He smiled as his hands approached her chest. “The way that I get to touch you more.”</p><p>“Oh, <em>now</em> you want to touch me?” Nahri crossed her arms, blocking whatever he was trying to do. But even as she pretended to play hard, she was enjoying all this attention on her. She also marveled at how smug Ali was behaving. That usually was <em>her</em> role in this marriage. But there shouldn’t be any surprise: Ali truly knew how to exceed in wordplay.</p><p>“Shhh.” Ignoring her death glare – and also her covered chest, much to her dismay –, Ali circled her to focus on drying her hair. “Now <em>you’re</em> the one ruining the mood.” When he turned her around gently and went down to wipe her legs, Nahri was happy again. The promise of tomorrow morning lingered between the two of them as Ali’s hands moved up her thighs.</p><p>“I feel like a spoiled child,” Nahri mused as his hands brought the towel up again, brushing her belly and her breasts.</p><p>“A spoiled <em>wife</em>,” he corrected, and pecked her on the lips.</p><p>She wouldn’t complain, though. After sliding the nightgown down her body, Ali picked her up once more to place her gently on her side of the bed. Instead of pushing back, as she expected, Ali took off his shoes, blew out the candles on their bedside table and followed her, dropping his head on the pillow beside hers with a sigh and pulling her close.</p><p>“Mmm, are you staying?” she asked, caressing his beard. “Don’t you have work to do?” Some rare nights, when she got home late and he was still working at the office downstairs, like this night, Ali would wait for her to fall asleep and then continue to read his papers until much later. It usually was a sign that it was something important, that couldn’t be postponed. She couldn’t help but feel pleased that he was here with her tonight. Not only because she craved his arms around her, cuddling her, but also because she worried that he didn’t get enough sleep during those nights.</p><p>“It can wait until tomorrow,” Ali answered. At the look on her face, he added: “After lunch, of course.”</p><p>“Good.” Nahri propped on her elbow to study his face. “And how was your day?” she asked, even though sleep was already clouding her mind. “What marvelous invention crossed your path during your meddling with those dangerous scrolls you brought here?”</p><p>“Oh, you won’t believe it!” Ali’s face lit up in excitement, as he started talking about some new device for an upgrade on the plumbing system that humans created in some place that her foggy brain wasn’t able to grasp.</p><p>She nodded while he continued his commentary about the economic benefits that it could bring them, the ways of getting in touch with this new technology and how to find new scrolls from the human engineers that could clear his doubts about how to implant it. As the explanations went on, however, Nahri missed a few of his words, and got completely lost in what he was saying. Instead, her mind focused on how excited he looked while blabbering about a subject he loved. She wondered if she looked the same while blabbering about her patients, and if Ali’s caring expression every time he would sit and listen was mirrored in her face in that moment. She could hear him talk like this forever, like whatever invention he was talking about was the greatest invention in the whole world and there was nothing more exciting than that. It was one of her favorite things about him – not that there were few –, and she couldn’t help but think that even if all of their idealistic expectations for Daevabad turn out wrong, at least one thing she did right. She married her best friend.</p><p>Nahri was very aware of the stupid smile planted on her face as her eyes lingered on her husband’s features, but she didn’t try to hide her obvious appraisal, even though her pride usually didn’t allow much simping. She got lost in his bright glowing eyes, which always looked like little fires lighting up the room even after their candles had been blown out, like a beacon to guide her home and ground her there.</p><p>At some point, however, Ali looked at her, a clear inspection of her face in search for signs that she was understanding whatever he was saying. She was not. “Are you listening to me?”</p><p>“Not really,” Nahri said apologetically, and Ali let out a loud laugh, his eyes wrinkling. “Please tell me again tomorrow,” she begged as she traced a finger along his jaw. “Right now all that’s left of my energy is focused on admiring your pretty face.”</p><p>“I’m okay with that,” Ali caught her hand and kissed her palm. “I’ll tell you all about it tomorrow, promise.” His arms circled her, strong and secure as they pulled her to his chest. “You should rest now.”</p><p>“I have one more request, if you will.” The idea sparkled in her mind. He did say that tonight was about her, after all, so she would surely make her demands.</p><p>“Of course. What is it?”</p><p>“I want to be the big spoon.”</p><p>“Alright.” His words came out fast, and he was already turning around before she could even blink. As much as Nahri loved staying like this, warm inside his embrace, she also wanted to give him something tonight. There was never much of a fight whenever she asked this of him; truth was, against all expectations, Ali <em>loved</em> being the small spoon in their cuddling sessions, like he himself had admitted many times before. Nahri loved it as well – a long time ago, she had allowed herself to feel good about being protected like that, even when protection wasn’t needed –, but there was something so precious about spooning such a big man like her husband, and something even more precious in knowing that he loved it deeply. She marveled at the fact that he could feel as comforted, loved and safe in her embrace as she felt in his.</p><p>Nahri threw her arms around him, satisfied to find that spot where his neck connected to his shoulder that could fit her face perfectly. She sighed as he intertwined their fingers above his abdomen. Before she could dive into a deep sleep, however, Nahri spoke again.</p><p>“Thank you for tonight.” She wasn’t sure how many times she had thanked him that night, but she still felt the need to voice it. Gratitude was a constant feeling whenever she was with her husband, and she was getting better and better at making sure he knew it. Her lips placed a kiss on his shoulder, smiling mischievously at the opportunity of making their inside joke, already forming in her mind. “Although…”</p><p>“Mmm?” Ali’s head moved an inch, as if to hear her better.</p><p>“Now <em>I’m</em> the one in your debt,” Nahri huffed, but she knew that he could hear her smile in her voice. Her arms tightened around him as she hid her face on the crook of his neck and took in his scent. “I prefer the other way around.”</p><p>“Don’t worry, my love.” Ali chuckled, and the sound vibrated in her body, lulling her to sleep. He squeezed her hand. “We have an eternity. That’s plenty of time to pay me back.”</p><p>Nahri nodded in agreement, and soon fell asleep.</p><p>That night, she dreamt of hibiscus tea, lazy mornings in bed, and starry eyes.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>song (title): call it what you want (taylor swift)</p></blockquote></div></div>
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